How to Turn Off Notifications on a Mac

Constant popups, banners sliding in from the corner of your screen, and notification chimes can make it nearly impossible to get any deep work done on your Mac. Whether you want to permanently silence a specific annoying application that won’t stop sending marketing alerts, or temporarily mute everything so you can focus on a project, macOS gives you comprehensive control over your notifications environment.

Why You Should Manage Your Mac Notifications

Every time your Mac pings with a new email or message, your brain is forced to switch contexts. Studies show it can take over 20 minutes to fully regain your deep focus after a minor interruption. By strictly controlling which apps are allowed to alert you—and how they alert you—you can:

• Increase Productivity: Block out social media and news alerts during working hours.
• Maintain Professionalism: Prevent embarrassing private messages from sliding onto your screen while you are screen-sharing during a Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting.
• Reduce Anxiety: A constant barrage of chimes and badges creates a false sense of urgency. Turning them off puts you back in control of your digital environment.

How to Turn Off Notifications for a Specific App

If you only want to stop notifications from a particularly chatty application (like Mail, Messages, or a specific web browser), you can disable its permissions entirely.

1. Click the Apple menu () in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings (or System Preferences if you are on an older version of macOS).
2. Click Notifications in the left-hand sidebar menu.
3. Scroll down to the “Application Notifications” section. You will see a list of every single app installed on your Mac that has requested permission to alert you.
4. Click on the specific app you want to silence (for example, Safari).
5. Toggle the main switch for Allow notifications to the OFF position. All alerts from this app will cease immediately.

Pro Tip for Silent Alerts: If you still want the notifications to quietly collect in your Notification Centre without actually interrupting you, keep “Allow notifications” ON, but uncheck the options for “Play sound for notification” and change the alert style at the top from “Banners” to “None”.

How to Temporarily Mute All Notifications (Focus Mode)

If you are about to share your screen in a meeting, or you just need a solid hour of uninterrupted writing time, you should use the macOS “Focus” (previously Do Not Disturb) feature instead of manually turning off every individual app.

1. Look at the top-right corner of your screen (your menu bar) and click the Control Centre icon (it looks like two small toggle switches).
2. Click anywhere in the Focus box (it usually displays a crescent moon icon and says “Do Not Disturb”).
3. This instantly silences all banners and sounds system-wide.
4. If you click the Focus button again, you can set a specific duration for the silence (e.g., “For 1 hour” or “Until this evening”). This is highly recommended so you do not accidentally miss important messages later in the day.

To manually turn the feature off and allow notifications through again, simply open the Control Centre and click the highlighted Focus button to disable it.

How to Stop Website Notifications in Safari

Sometimes, the most annoying notifications do not come from apps, but from websites asking to send you updates. To stop websites from even asking for permission:

1. Open Safari.
2. Click Safari in the top menu bar and select Settings.
3. Go to the Websites tab at the top of the window.
4. Click Notifications in the left sidebar.
5. Uncheck the box at the bottom that says “Allow websites to ask for permission to send notifications.” You will never be bothered by those popups again.